The woman led her into a small sitting room with some quite old but nice wooden furniture. She sat down at the low table on a nicely padded chair as the woman shuffled off further into the house. She looked around the room seeing it tastefully decorated with nice window furnishings and a small painting hanging on the wall over the mantle of a fireplace. The painting depicted who she assumed was the old woman with a man in their younger years. Beneath the painting hung a beautifully carved bow that looked extremely well made to Zalias eyes.

The lady came back into the room with a younger man,

"My son," the woman said, patting the man on the shoulder as they both sat opposite Zalia, the woman putting a plate of steaming fresh bread and butter.

? - Iron rank

? - Bronze rank

The old lady was the higher rank, obviously having a longer life to reach it,

"Just a Tin ranker hey. What makes you think you'll be able to deal with our problem when we can't," the son said to Zalia.

"Now, now dear, don't be so rude," the old lady said.

"It's quite alright, I'm Zalia, it's a pleasure to meet you. In answer to your question, I might be a low rank but I've lived in the far north in the snow and been a hunter for the past fifteen years of my life. I'm pretty sure I have an idea of what I'm doing," Zalia said, keeping an even tone.

"Sorry for my underestimation, I'm Darren and my mother, Juniper," Darren said, having the self awareness to at least sound a little regretful of his quick words, "it's been a very stressful time, our herd being culled on an almost daily basis by this beast."

"If I can ask a few questions about it, have you seen the creature?" Zalia asked, buttering some bread and eating it with an appreciative look at the old lady.

"Nothing too clear, it stands on two legs at least, I caught that. It has fur, attacks with its claws from what I can tell and it's big, real big. My height plus a half at the least," Darren said.

He looked resigned to the situation and Zalia felt bad for him. His entire livelihood was threatened by whatever the creature was and there wasn't much he could do about it. Based on the picture, the man was the son of the old lady Juniper and what Zalia thought to be her late husband, the man in the painting.

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"I've great respect for hunter's such as yourself, my pa was one before he settled on this farm," Darren continued, gesturing to the painting and confirming Zalia's thoughts, "but a warning to you. You may be all that you say but this beast out there is no small thing to play with. It's dangerous miss, I might say, real dangerous."

"I hear what you're saying Darren, I won't underestimate it. I made that mistake not too long ago and don't plan on repeating the experience," Zalia said.

"Here's what I've got for you. I'll track the thing down to wherever it's sleeping, I can do that at the very least. Then, I'll come back here and tell you what I know. If I think I can take it, I'll go back out and do so. Whether I succeed or not, at the very least you'll know where it's coming from and hopefully have a better description and rank," she continued, "how does that sound for now?"

Darren looked at his mother for a moment before turning back to Zalia,

"Sounds like a good plan to me, when will you begin?" He asked.

"Darren! Manners," Juniper said before smiling at Zalia and pushing the bread a little closer. Zalia smiled back.

After finally escaping from Juniper who just really wanted Zalia to eat a little bit more, she made her way down to where Darren described the most recent attack being. She very quickly caught on to a set of tracks leading off into the forested area. Most concerning to her was the fact that her skill and her eyes saw two creatures, not one. She used the Dodge-vine ritual before stringing her bow and moving into the forest.

It wasn't long before Zalia came across a large cave opening set into the side of a hill. The darkness of the cave was deep and the smell that came from the opening was horrid. Even from fifteen metres or so back she could smell it. A few things had given her pause before entering the cave. The first problem was that upon arriving she had noticed that her ability was telling her there were quite a few more than two tracks there. It counted upwards of ten separate tracks meaning there could be even more creatures inside than anticipated. This, plus the fact Zalia didn't know their rank meant she most definitely did not want to go down there. Instead, she had to come up with a plan.

Zalia considered a few things in her planning. One, she most definitely was not going down there so she needed a way to draw them out. Her idea for that was to use the Flame-root to burn them out. She didn't know if it would work or not but it seemed like a promising idea. Secondly she wanted to set up a field of poisoned spikes like she had back in the north. It had worked quite effectively then and she thought it definitely would here. Next, she would line the clearing with some more of the Flame-root and set it alight when the creatures left the cave, hoping it would deter them from approaching her. She was betting a lot on the creatures being scared of the fire and not completely immune. Then, all she had to do was fire off her arrows and let her poison do its work. A relatively simple plan but she hoped it would work. She quickly made her way back to the farm to tell them what she had found.

She was sitting back at the table after giving the news to them, watching their expressions of fear and despair,

"I'm going to try," Zalia said.

They looked at her hopefully,

"You've got a plan?" Darren asked.

"Oh yeah, I've got a plan," she said.